Production and Observation of Laser Ablated Carbon Plumes

Abstract

A new chamber has been developed to study the characteristics of laser ablated plumes. This work was motivated by an earlier study in the lab, and the anticipated availability of a new high-power short-pulsed laser capability at the Nevada Terawatt Facility (NTF). The new chamber configuration offers multiple lines-of-sight to observe the laser ablated plume. This additional flexibility will allow a number of different spectrometers to gather light from the plume and, eventually, the use of other diagnostics such as shadowgraphy.The target chamber has been installed, and we have produced plumes using a pulsed (5 ns), 50 millijoule Nd:YAG laser operating at 1064 nm to ablate material from a carbon target. Images of plumes produced in atmosphere and in vacuum will be presented.